Protests in front of abortion clinics are nothing new. The Planned Parenthood in my city frequently had people outside carrying signs, chanting, and even attempting to communicate with patients of the center — whether they were seeking termination services or not.
Typically, these demonstrations are limited to words — no matter how damaging they may be. But when a conservative group met recently in front of Greenville Women's Clinic in South Carolina, things got a little hectic when abortion rights advocates decided to fight back.
Men from Operation Save America tried to set up ladders near a women's clinic.
A group of men attempted to put up ladders outside the wooden fence that surrounds the Greenville Women’s Clinic, the Greenville Post and Courier reported. Instead of allowing that to happen, women from the Abortion Access Front group decided to put their bodies on the line in an attempt to stop them.
The whole scene was captured on video and shared on Twitter.
Abortion rights activists used their bodies to block the protesters.
In the Twitter post, the men with ladders were said to be a part of Operation Save America, a Christian fundamentalist group that opposes abortion. According to OSA’s website, the group had an “outreach” event scheduled at an abortion clinic in Greenville.
In AAF’s video of the confrontation, it claims that the men were trying to climb on top of the ladders to use bullhorns to shout at patients.
The OSA men threatened the women trying to stop them.
But they weren’t able to erect the ladders. AAF activists pushed up against the ladders with their arms, legs, and bodies to prevent people from OSA from carrying out their plan.
“No, I’m going to stay here,” one woman told the Christian group. The edited video shows frustrated OSA members trying, failing, and even threatening the AAF activists.
"You’re going to turn into a flat thing on the [fence]," one man says in the video.
AAF activists told the men that they couldn't just do whatever they wanted.
Later, an AAF activist shouts to an OSA member, “Hey little boy! Learn that just because you’re a man you don’t get to do whatever the f— you want.”
It was a message more than a few of the men there could stand to learn.
The one who claimed he was going to flatten someone responded, “I said move. You better move.”
The AAF activist refused. Text on the video reads, “This is how violent they become trying to claim ownership over your body.”
Deputies arrived but no charges were filed.
From the video, it seems that the AAF activists were successful in keeping OSA members from executing their plan of yelling from the ladders. Despite that, 100 people lined the roadway that day waving signs and yelling.
Eventually, deputies from the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office arrived, the Post and Courier reported. Authorities spoke with both parties but nobody was charged.
